Arakan News Agency
The government of Myanmar is playing the same old card, previously played by the military junta. The authorities have stepped up the controversial National Verification Card (NVC) distribution program among Muslim Rohingyas in restive Arakan state. Although the authority is trying to lure people to receive the cards in exchange of giving ‘freedom of movement’ but it has allegedly required them to identify themselves as “Bengali,” in order to get the document, implying that they were migrants from Bangladesh.
A report by the online news outlet the Irrawaddy, on 14 March, said that Maungdaw district administration has started to allow the NVC holders from Arakan State’s Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships to travel to Bangladesh border and within the local region. However, the card holders require a travel permit from the state government to visit areas like the state capital Sittwe and other townships in Arakan State.
According to the Irrawaddy, approximately 3,000 Muslims in Maungdaw townships so far have received the NVCs. The cards are being distributed to people who will later be scrutinized for eligibility for citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law, which defines citizenship along ethnic lines, said the district authority.
“But the majority of the estimated 300,000-plus Maungdaw Muslims — identifying as Rohingya — have long objected to the government’s NVC project, with complaints dating back to the previous military-backed government, which too had required them to identify as “Bengali,” in order to get the document, implying that they were migrants from Bangladesh”, the report said.
Although the authority has said that the current NVC process omits holders’ ethnicity and religion, but people are not allowed to receive the document if he fails to comply with the government line.
According to President’s Office, the NVC has been issued to around 6,200 of nearly 397,500 people who returned the “white cards” they once held, which had denoted “temporary citizenship” and were canceled by the former U Thein Sein-led government in 2015.
In June 2016, the National League for Democracy (NLD) government formed a body to issue National Verification Cards (NVC) to stateless Muslim Rohingya in Arakan State.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) were posing threats to local Rohingyas with bans on their livelihood access and travel if they do not accept the NVCs.
Myanmar government insists Rohingya Muslims are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship rights. They are subjected to strict laws restricting their movement, employment, marriages, and how many children they can have.
Not only that, the UN special rapporteur on human rights Yanghee Lee has said recently that Myanmar is seeking to “expel” all ethnic Rohingya from its territory.
The evidence “indicates the government may be trying to expel the Rohingya population from the country altogether,” Lee told the UN rights council.
Myanmar army launched a bloody crackdown against the Rohingya in October last year in Arakan state following attacks by militants on several border posts. UN investigators say that during the military operation women were gang-raped by soldiers and Rohingya babies were slaughtered.
Lee wants the rights council to establish the UN’s highest-level probe, a Commission of Inquiry, to investigate all crackdown against ethnic minority Muslim Rohingyas.
Lee said that a full international probe “could have a destabilising affect” in that it may implicate the military in crimes against humanity, but she insisted it was in the government’s interest to get the facts out.
Hopes of a new era of human rights were raised in 2015 when pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi was elected as Myanmar’s leader in the country’s first ever openly contested election but she has since been accused of ignoring persecution of the Rohingya.
source: southasianmonitor
